Tales from September 1st
by StarKid McFly
Summary: The first of September is a significant day in the Wizarding World.


**Okay so I wrote this yesterday and since I haven't been to bed yet then it's still September 1st in my head so it still counts. Anyway, this was originally meant to be ****a one-shot but I have a few more ideas for it so if I like it I might make a multi-chap in the future! :) So here you are.**

**This is for Rainbow Dust :) **

**Rocky**

**xx**

**Disclaimer: Yes. Yes it's all mine. All of it. I've been fooling you all along. Don't you feel stupid? MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAPEASANTS**

**(it's not mine)**

"See, I told you we wouldn't be late, Mother," James said as he strolled onto the platform, Dorea rolling her eyes as she followed, pushing his trolley. "Oh, ye of little faith."

"Hmm," his mother replied, raising an eyebrow. "It didn't seem that way fifteen minutes ago when your Quidditch robes were on the cat."

"Well, I can't explain all of Ignotus's actions," James answered, looking at his mother and heaving a sigh. "He is free to be his own feline, and I think we should encourage him through this stage. If he wants to be a chaser, let him be one."

"Have you got your badge?" Dorea asked, and there was a bark of laughter from behind her where Charlus and Sirius had just appeared through the barrier.

"Of course he has, Mrs P, he's been polishing it," Sirius replied, grinning widely as James moved to bat him over his mother's shoulder. "See, look at him trying to be all nonchalant, but really, he's so excited, that's why he's got it pinned onto his civvies."

"I wouldn't speak to me that way, Black, if I were you," James said, unabashed, mockingly straightening the shiny Head Boy badge as his three companions laughed. "A man of my position..."

"Oh, you're so right," Sirius replied, gasping. "I'm so sorry. Please don't give me detention!"

"Speaking of which, why am I pushing a man of your position's trolley?" Dorea asked, raising her eyebrows. "I thought you were burdened with glorious responsibility."

James shrugged. "Staff?"

"Oh, you jammy little sod," Dorea said, narrowing her eyes and raising her hand to swat her son playfully, James cackling.

The platform was heaving, bustling families with nervous looking first years, hyperactive second years (they always seemed to get into this phase during second year, James thought to himself, though perhaps he and Sirius had never quite outgrown this phase) and cheery elder students accompanied by parents, all of whom seemed to have the same bittersweet expressions adorning their faces. Looking around, James whistled to himself. "Where're Moony and Wormtail?"

"I don't know, eating somewhere probably," Sirius replied, shrugging, before his eyes slid over to a space nearby, his face paling slightly. James followed his glance to a trio of people; a man with a strong jaw and dark hair, a woman with an iron gaze and slender limbs, and a teenage boy who could have been Sirius if the other boy was a few inches shoulder and had slightly more delicate features. James automatically moved closer to his friend, though his mother had reached him first, and had a firm grip on Sirius's arm, steering him away from the steely gaze of the Blacks. "Are you okay?" she asked, and he nodded, smiling.

"Yeah, course." He shook his head, and pointed forward. "Hey, look, that's Moony isn't it? That sad bastard over there with the mad mother and the portable larder of chocolate."

James followed where he indicated and grinned as he saw a tired looking boy with sandy hair leaning against a pillar, his mother fussing over his clothes and hair as he caught sight of the other two boys.

"I'm not _making a scene_, Remus Lupin, it looks like a mane," they heard Mrs Lupin fuss as she moved his fringe and attempted battle with the way his hair fell across his face.

"Honestly, Remus," James said, his signature jaunty grin spreading across his face, "anyone would think you were an _animal_."

"That's close to the mark, even by your standards, Potter," Remus replied, raising his eyebrows, but the small smile on his face just fed James's cocky expression more. "Come on then, is this the bloody badge you've been harping on about all summer?" he continued, prodding the Head Boy badge pinned to his jumper.

Mrs Lupin swatted her son's arm down. "Remus," she admonished, before turning to smile. "Mind you, James Potter, your hair is not much better." She reached up to attempt to flatten his hair, but James stepped back.

"No messing with the hair, Mrs L," he said, putting his hands up to ward her off as she laughed. "You can't improve on this kind of perfection."

"Perfection, is that what we're calling it nowadays?" her husband muttered, and James grinned. "Go on, you jammy little bugger, get on the train with those two. You've only got a few minutes, and I think Dorea might burst if she doesn't get to give you all one final hug."

It was true; Dorea swept through the crowd, giving all three boys a hug, planting a sloppy kiss on her son's cheek ("Mother, I'm nearly eighteen years of age!") and giving Sirius an extra tight squeeze, before letting them pile onto the train, the three of them leaning out of the window and grinning at the four adults.

"Now you behave, James Potter!" Dorea was shouting as the whistle blew.

"Mother, I always behave!" James replied, a shocked look on his face.

Dorea ignored this. "If I get one letter saying you've blown up a cat or a child-"

"Mother!" James said, Sirius and Remus laughing. "I'd never blow up a cat. Snivellus on the other hand..."

"_James_!"

Laughing, the three boys began waving as the train picked up speed, craning to see their parents before the train went round the corner.

"Excellent, chaps," James said as soon as the platform was out of sight. "Well, I have to go to the Head Boy carriage..."

"Oh, are you Head Boy?" Remus asked, raising his eyebrows. "I think you failed to mention it."

"Seriously, I have no idea how," he replied, shrugging. "But anyway, we have to go debrief the new prefects, are you coming, Rem?"

"I don't know," Remus replied biting his lip. "It's quite a small carriage and I'm not sure we can squeeze in both your ego and myself."

"Tosser," James snapped, pushing Remus forwards, and Remus grinned. "Catch you later, Sirius. Sirius?"

Sirius, who looked mildly dazed, snapped out of his reverie. "Sorry?"

"We're going to the prefect carriage," James replied, a slightly worried look in his eyes. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm good," Sirius answered, nodding. "I'll go find Pete. Sad wanker must be around here somewhere."

James smiled, before raising his eyebrows ever so slightly.

"I'm fine, honestly," Sirius said, shaking his head. "I just... he never came to the platform for m- when I was there, y'know?"

James nodded, understanding, and gave Sirius's shoulder a quick squeeze. Sirius looked down, smirked, and gave him a shove.

"Anyway, haven't you got some first years to go and show your badge to?"

"Piss off."

Sirius grinned, before pushing his way through a gaggle of third years who had decided the corridor was an excellent place to stop for a quick natter.

James exchanged glances with Remus and pulled him towards the front of the train. "Good summer then?"

"Yeah, it was alright," Remus replied, pushing his hair back to the way it had been before Hope Lupin had attacked it. "There was a very cute girl in the local coffee shop."

"Continue."

"Yeah, her name was Jane. She was nice. A Trekkie."

"What's that, a walker?"

Remus smiled slightly. "Something like that."

"And?"

"And it all went really well, until bloody Sturgis Podmore came round and started talking about that Spin the Bottle game."

"Oh," James said, biting his lip as the infamous game sprung to mind. "Ah."

"Yes."

"So basically, now, thanks to Gus, Jane thinks I'm the sort of friend who'd enjoy a Sound of Music sing-along."

James honestly tried to keep a straight face, but it didn't last for long. As he cackled, Remus rolled his eyes, before steering him into the designated prefect compartment.

What awaited him there made him ground to a halt, a smile growing wider across his face as Lily Evans looked up, met his eye and muttered "Oh _Merlin_."

"No, it's just me," James replied, smiling as he took the seat opposite, Remus sitting next to him with an apologetic glance at Lily. "But I've been told the resemblance is startling."

"This is a joke, isn't it?" she asked Remus, ignoring James, who was grinning more widely. "That's your badge, he's just wearing it to antagonise me."

"Not everything is about you, Evans," James replied, and Lily sent him a seething look. "Obviously Dumbledore sees something in me that others merely cannot see."

"Ah, so that's why you have no redeeming qualities," Lily shot back. "They're invisible."

"But still there," James replied, and Lily bit her lip as Remus shifted awkwardly, clearing his throat.

"Once you two are done," he said, nodding at the door behind him, "there's some nervous looking fifth years outside."

Indeed there were a gaggle of eight fifth years, all of whom had a slight glimmer of trepidation about them. Lily stood up, moving to slide the door open and let them in; James shot a glance at Remus, which Remus answered with a slight warning look.

"Okay, new prefects," Lily said, beaming at the group of people, "I'm Lily, and I'm your new Head Girl. Should you have any questions this year, come and find me, and I'll try to answer them, as your leader. You've been appointed by Professor Dumbledore himself to help guide students through their time at Hogwarts, in particular the first years. I'm guessing you already know this, so I don't suppose there are any questions so far, yes?"

"I have a question," James interrupted, raising his hand from behind her.

Lily took a deep breath in and muttered something incoherent, before glancing at him. "Yes, Potter?"

"Hi, I'm James Potter," he said, smiling brightly at the fifth years. "I'm supposed to be Head Boy, but apparently the title of Head Girl is far superior, so don't ask me any questions, I don't know what I'm doing." There was a small titter of laughter, though he noticed that both the Slytherin and Ravenclaw prefects looked unimpressed. "My question is, Miss Evans, what makes you so high and mighty?"

Lily's smile was more of a grimace. "I think we both know why I'm directing them to follow my orders rather than yours."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Surely, we don't need to go into this." Her expression grew more strained. The fifth years perked up slightly.

"I'm curious as to what 'this' is," James replied lightly. Lily gave him another furious look, before holding her fingers up.

"First year, you blew up the Gryffindor common room."

"By accident," James said reproachfully.

"Second year, you flooded the entire second floor, turning a third of the library to mulch and enraging Madam Pince."

"Well, she managed to dry them out again."

"Everyone in the Slytherin Transfiguration class found their desk full of flobberworms instead of textbooks, also second year."

"There is no concrete evidence that that was me," James interrupted with a sheepish grin at the Slytherin prefects, both of whom looked at him with disgust.

"And then there were the fireworks in the kitchen that came through onto the tables instead of dessert-"

"That was Sirius."

"The Whomping Willow throwing baubles-"

"That was a masterpiece."

"The mass Howler event-"

"Sirius."

"The toaster incident."

"Sirius."

"The toothpaste incident."

"Remus, actually."

"Peeves' rendition of a very crude song about a certain biological feature of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named at four in the morning?"

"Come on," James said, smirking. "You have to admit, hearing a poltergeist sing about Voldemort's bollocks is pretty funny."

"The love potions?"

"Sirius. And me, but not as much. He's a vindictive little bastard, I'm a shining role model."

Lily ignored this. "The teaching rude words to the suits of armour."

"Yeah, okay, that was a combined effort, but you have to admit, that was a masterful feat of engineering," James replied, and she rolled her eyes. "But anyway, there must be some reason I got this badge."

"A mistake, maybe?"

James gave her a glance before looking at the prefects. "Okay, so maybe you should go to her if you need any help. Unless you want any guidance pranking. I'm very good at that."

Lily clucked her tongue in a disgusted fashion, before reeling off the rest of the details. "With that, your first duty is to go and patrol. I myself, accompanied by _Potter_-" she spoke his name with such venom that even he recoiled momentarily "-will keep an eye out. For now, just treat Remus here as if he was Head Boy. He knows what he's doing."

She left the compartment, indicating for James to follow, who glanced over at Remus. "I don't know," he said, shrugging. "I think she's warming to me."

* * *

"So, how was your summer, Evans?"

Lily looked at him as if he'd just dribbled on her shirt. "Why are you talking to me?"

"I'm just making conversation," James replied, as they moved down the narrow corridor of the train, the occasional second year running past them excitedly. _Children under fourteen should not be given sweets_, James thought to himself as one knocked into him, laughing hysterically. "It's what civil people do, you know."

"Well, I don't care about civilities, I just want to get this bloody journey finished so that we can go to Dumbledore and ask him to correct his error and give Remus your badge."

James paused for a moment, unsure what to make of it. "You really don't care about civilities, do you?"

Lily opened her mouth to reply when there was a purple flash from one of the compartments along the corridor and a first year ran outside, horror evident on his face. Spotting Lily, he pointed wordlessly at the compartment, and she looked at James. "Let's go."

As they reached the glass door and Lily slid it open, wand out, the commotion became apparent. Some fifth year Slytherins, Regulus Black among them, had clearly been interrupted by three first years, all of whom seemed to be rueing the day they had set foot in the compartment as a girl and a boy sneered at them, wands out. One of the first years was body-bound; another was strung up by the ankle from the ceiling.

"What's going on in here?" Lily asked officiously. The Slytherin girl turned her attention to her.

"None of your business."

"I think any bullying is my business," Lily replied coldly, and the Slytherins snickered. "Put down your wands."

"I wouldn't, if I were you," the boy warned her, and Lily glared.

"_Expelliarmus_."

Their wands shot from their hands and she caught them with a sweeping grace, smiling as the first years were released from their enchainment (though in hindsight James should probably have attempted to catch the little boy rather than step out of the way). The Slytherin boy looked furious.

"You filthy mudblood," he spat, and Lily flushed a little, but James had produced his wand.

"What did you just say to her?"

"Leave it, Potter, I fight my own battles."

"Fight this one, then, you muggle whore!" sneered the boy, and before anyone could grasp what was happening, the boy had Lily by the throat, the wands dropping from her hands as they flew up to try and loosen the boy's grip on her neck.

Everything seemed to happen slowly, yet all at once. Lily, surprise and pain etched on her face, struggled against the squeezing of her neck, choking for breath; Regulus from behind looked shocked, the Slytherin girl jeering. Before he knew what he was doing, James was raising his wand and brought it sailing through the air, a blinding white light streaming out of the end of it –

And everything stopped.

The boy who had been strangling Lily lay sprawled on the floor. Regulus, who remained in the same eloquent and non-committal stance he had been in earlier, raised his eyebrows delicately at James, the Slytherin girl slumped at his feet. Lily was also on the floor, though she was sitting, rubbing her neck, an ugly red mark latticing it. James reached down to help her to her feet; she accepted his arm and heaved herself up, looking at him with wide eyes.

"Are you okay?" he asked her gently. She nodded, and tried to speak, but could only make hoarse, breathy noises.

"I think I speak for her when I ask what that was," Regulus said, a small spark of amusement in his grey eyes, grey eyes that were exactly the same as Sirius's. James felt a stab of pain on his best friend's behalf. "Surely you're too old for accidental magic, James Potter."

"How about you shut up?" James snapped, and Lily smacked him on the shoulder. "What?"

"How did you do that?" she gasped, and he shook his head. She raised her eyebrows, but shrugged. "I don't know how, but I'm fucking glad you did," she continued, leaning on him, before turning to the first years.

Shit, the first years.

"I suppose you guys don't want to come to Hogwarts anymore?" James said lightly, smiling at one of the boys, who was crying. He wiped his face hastily, and James grinned. "It's not all that bad. Watch out for the Slytherins, they're a slimy lot."

"Potter," Lily snapped, though she didn't sound as chiding as usual.

"Are you a professor?" the girl asked, looking at James curiously.

"N-no," James replied, slightly taken aback. "Gosh, woman, what do you take me for? I'm James Potter, Head Boy, Gryffindor, Professional Rule Breaker." He offered her his hand, and she grinned, shaking it, before using it to pull herself to her feet and help up her friend, the boy who had come to find James and Lily earlier peering nervously into the compartment from the adjoining corridor.

"Gwenog Jones," she replied, beaming. "Can we learn how to do that at Hogwarts? That was wicked."

"Well," James said, his jaunty grin returning, "only the very best wizards learn that. So stay out of Slytherin, and maybe I could teach you."

Lily rolled her eyes, but smiled slightly as the boy who had been crying ran forward to pull James into a hug. He looked surprised, but patted the eleven year old awkwardly on the head. "Go on," he said, pointing at the corridor, "find somewhere else to sit. And mind they're not Slytherin. You can usually tell who they are; they all have this kind of nose/chin thing going on, they're all related."

The first years grinned, and began to run off, gossiping about James's mysterious magical ability. Lily smirked.

"Inbreeding jokes," she said, raising her eyebrows. "I thought only Sturgis made those."

"Only Sturgis makes them to their _faces_," James replied, shrugging. "I'm much cleverer than Sturgis in that respect. I haven't been hospitalised yet. I think the record was four times in a week with Gus."

"Still, aren't you pureblood, Potter?" Lily asked, narrowing her eyes, her smile growing.

"They don't need to know that," James said, batting her question away, and she laughed. "Come on. Shall we go find Remus? He's good at healing spells."

"I'm fine," she assured him, though she was still massaging her neck. "I think we've found out why you got that badge though."

"Why?"

"Because you're obviously much braver than I expected," she said earnestly. "Well, no. You're a prat, but no one can say you're not brave."

"Ooh, I like this complimenting business," James said, grinning, and her smile faded.

"And you're back to being a prat again."

"But a brave prat."

"Shut up."

"A handsome brave prat?"

"Potter."

"That's unfair to ask."

"Yes."

"I already know I'm handsome."

"Oh, _Merlin._"

"No, we've been through this, remember? I'm James, the handsome, brave- ouch, okay, I'll stop."

"Thank Godric."

"It was a brave attempt."


End file.
